1860-1911. Austrian composer and conductor.
His ten symphonies, the moving Das Lied von
der Erde/Song of the Earth 1909, and his song
cycles display a synthesis of Romanticism and
new uses of chromatic harmonies and musical
forms. Mahler was born in Bohemia (now
Czechoslovakia); he studied at the Vienna
Conservatoire, and conducted in Prague,
Leipzig, Budapest, and Hamburg 1891-97. He
was director of the Vienna Court Opera from
1897 and conducted the New York Philharmonic
from 1910.